In the art, methods are known for mechanically processing an organ or organs taken out from slaughtered poultry in a processing device or processing line, which organ or organs form part of an organ package and wherein the organ or organs are separated from the organ package. Usually the organ package taken out from the poultry also includes the intestines.
Such known methods are performed in a processing line for harvesting an organ or organs from an organ package taken out from slaughtered poultry, which processing line includes at least one processing device for processing an organ or organs from the organ package.
EP-A-1 769 681 indicates a method and device for mechanically processing a cluster of organs of a slaughtered animal, wherein the cluster is taken out of, and separated from, the body of the slaughtered animal. A clamping device is used to fix a particular organ within the cluster, which cluster is conveyed along a predetermined path. Then tissue connections in the cluster are broken on the basis of the spatial orientation of the cluster, which is derived from the spot where the concerning organ is clamped.
In general, methods and processing lines for mechanically processing an organ or organs taken out from slaughtered poultry with the aim to harvest the separate organs from the organ package are suffering from diverse problems such as that organ packages or organs thereof are lost during processing, damage occurs to organs such as the liver and the heart, and unintentionally certain organs such as gallbladders are not removed or organs are not entirely separated and cause obstructions in the processing line. A known challenge particular to gizzard peelers is to provide effective separation between the gizzards and the parts that are peeled therefrom. Further problems are connected to the use of huge amounts of water and energy. Notably also the processing lines of the prior art include many parts and are expensive whilst such lines are still suffering from the problem that the organ packages are not handled well.
In order to answer to increasing demand for automatic processing of the organ packages, it is preferable that the processing line incorporates a series of processing devices for sequentially harvesting from an organ package one or more organs from the group including a heart, a liver, and a gizzard (ventriculus) with a pre-stomach (proventriculus) attached thereto.
Although the organ package can have a diversity of organs, it is preferable that the organ package includes at least a heart and/or a liver and/or a gizzard and/or a pre-stomach and that the organ harvester supplies these organs or a selection thereof through its exit or exits. Hence at predetermined points harvesting of subsequently liver, heart, and gizzard with pre-stomach can occur.
In such an automatic processing line, normally it is preferred to include a gizzard processing device for separating a pre-stomach from a gizzard and a gizzard peeler for subsequently peeling the gizzard. Wherever in this document reference is made to a gizzard this refers to the ventriculus, and wherever reference is made to a pre-stomach this refers to the proventriculus.